Indie Post-Punk Alt-Rock Band Glorybots Drops New Single, ‘Pain Rain’
From the opening beats of Glorybots’ newest single, “Pain Rain,” to the almost alien cry of the instruments and vocals five minutes later in the single’s concluding moments, it’s clear that the post-punk alt-rock band has taken its sound to a new level. Glorybots is set to release its fourth LP, mad.end, this spring. The first single is already available on all streaming platforms, inviting listeners to the band’s dark, futuristic rock aesthetic with its atmospheric blend of post-punk, alternative rock, and electronic elements. Two more singles are expected to drop in the coming months.
The Road to Glorybots
Glorybots is the brainchild of lead singer and songwriter Ethan Drone, who grew up listening to Brazilian folk music and ’80s and ’90s bands ranging from Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, and The Cure, to Tones on Tail, Love and Rockets, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, and others. Ethan has written six albums (four with Glorybots); his previous gig was the Seattle-based rock band Echo Texture, which once opened for Dandy Warhols. He has played the bass, electric, and acoustic guitars, the keyboard, the piano, and the ukulele. “I’ll attempt to play any musical instrument I can get my hands on,” Ethan shares, “but the most interesting instrument I’ve ever played at a live show is the berimbau, a single-stringed percussion instrument (resembling an archer’s bow), that I bought in Brazil. The berimbau is played by striking the string with a stick while modulating notes via placement of a rock against the string.”
Brazil, home of the berimbau, is where Ethan spent his formative years in early childhood. The rest of his youth was spent in Southern Cal, but he has also lived in cities across America (he’s currently in Seattle) and has traveled to over 30 countries, from Nepal to South Africa to Thailand. He once met Paulo Coelho, author of international bestseller The Alchemist, on a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a youth, he met Daniel Ash (singer of Love and Rockets) when he got caught attempting to sneak onto their tour bus at one of their shows.
Ethan established Glorybots a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic in a desire to write music that would blend edgy, digitized elements with classic analog band sounds. Ethan wondered what might have developed if early Cure had continued to create music in the vein of Japanese Whispers, and he wanted to fuse the sound he imagined with the type of otherworldly elements explored by goth bands like Tones on Tail.
How Glorybots’ Sound Has Evolved
Glorybots’ first album, Dark Alien Pop, attempted that fusion and was met with enthusiasm by critics and fans, but it lacked the post-punk swagger Ethan wanted to achieve. Glorybots’ second album, Invisible, brought the swagger with a more guitar-driven sound, and the third album, Radiation Skies, brought a more serious rock performance of Ethan’s vision, leaving critics praising the album for capturing “the noted indie act sounding more divinely in touch with the medium than ever before.”
Reflecting on the journey, Ethan shares what he feels held him back in earlier years. “I used to suffocate my music by trying to steer it in a specific direction,” he remarks. “Typically, this was delimited by the direction of something previously known (like the style or sound of another artist or band) … I now try to stay out of the way and just let the music flow in whatever direction it takes, whether that’s ultimately perceived as “good” or “bad” by anyone. …To paraphrase David Bowie, if you’re making music that doesn’t make you slightly uncomfortable, then you’re probably not creatively where you ought to be.”
What mad.end Delivers
The upcoming LP, mad.end, completes that rejection of predefined styles and delivers an authentic, raw, and delightfully strange sound in a compelling presentation, with lyrics infused with mystery, depth, and compulsion. Its song arrangements are less traditional, yet still allow the beauty of analog instrumentation to flow through at the right moments. The overall message is one of hope; “Not the hope of some platform, treatise, or agenda,” Ethan shares, “the hope of the human form in all that we can achieve.” mad.end is a breathless celebration of human creativity and potential.mad.end will be out in Spring 2025; you can find the single Pain Rain now on your streaming platform of choice, with two more singles about to drop. You can also follow the band for news of what’s next on Instagram, Facebook, or BlueSky.
